The subject of this patent application relates generally to authentication systems, and more particularly to an authenticity verification system and associated methods of use for dynamically authenticating a given physical or virtual object via a rewritable memory device attached to said object.
Applicant(s) hereby incorporate herein by reference any and all patents and published patent applications cited or referred to in this application.
By way of background, in today's highly competitive global marketplace, counterfeiting has become a sad reality. With the ever increasing availability of technological means to malicious entities, many items in our everyday life have become targets for counterfeiting. To name a few, currencies, name brands, general consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, foods, beverages, legal documents, certificates of achievements, and personal identification cards are all targeted and successfully reproduced by such malicious entities to their financial benefit and the deception of the general public.
The ability to determine the genuineness of an item or product has become a requirement in modern commerce. For example, there are many companies, especially high-end name brand companies, whose products are purchased mainly because of consumer recognition of the company name. Consumers trust that products manufactured by a well-known, established companies will meet a certain level of quality. As a result of this, unscrupulous or criminal companies and individuals make copies or knock-offs of these name brand products. Therefore, the actual name brand companies/manufacturers must take measures to establish that products sold under their name are genuine.
This phenomena leaves the average person unaware and vulnerable to counterfeits. In cases of ingestibles, such as pharmaceuticals and food products, counterfeits pose real public health risks, in addition to financial waste for consumers and manufacturers.
Intellectual property is up for the grab of the criminal entities, leaving the honest and creative companies with enormous financial loss and frustration that hinders further innovation.
This problem is even more prevalent in second and third world countries where labor and materials are less expensive and intellectual property laws are looser and frequently not enforced. The counterfeit items are often extremely hard to distinguish from originals, making the unaware consumers victims of fraud.
There have been numerous attempts to solve this counterfeiting problem. One such method is the attachment of a radio frequency identification (“RFID”) tag to an item. The RFID tag contains a unique ID that can be scanned by an authenticating device and verified against a database to establish its authenticity. While this method has been somewhat effective, there is still an inherent problem associated with the use of RFID tags. The tag itself can be reverse engineered and cloned an infinite number of times. All fraudulent copies would still be recognized by the authenticating device as authentic, thus implying that the underlying item is authentic as well. While it may not be a simple task to hack and clone a protected RFID tag or other rewriteable memory device, it is technically feasible. The process of hacking and cloning is a “one-time investment” for the malicious entity. Once it has been done, it can be an easily repeatable process, making the initial investment worthwhile. Thus, there remains a need for an effective authenticity verification system capable of preventing such workarounds.
Aspects of the present invention fulfill these needs and provide further related advantages as described in the following summary.